Free Republic

**Note to the moderators: this is a summary post for a number of stories on this same topic. All cited links below include full original titles. No single story/link was sufficient; trying to also prevent multiple posts. Summary: An Alabama Legislative Conference Committee transformed an 8-page education reform bill into a 27-page "bombshell" bill that has now passed both Houses and awaits the Governor's signature. This new bill includes the following provisions: 1. Parents of children in "chronically failing" schools will be allowed to either (a) move into a different (non-failing) public school; or (b) take 80% of the school's...

Hi Freepers, Just wanted some feedback on this non-profit which is going to bring true school choice to every child in the land. The following is our declaration. Let me know what you think. And please spread the word if you agree. thanks jc This is the first edition of End the Education Plantation’s newsletter, The Liberator. In the months ahead, we’ll use it to offer up news and opinions about school choice. We take our name from William Lloyd Garrison’s anti-slavery newspaper. Garrison fought against the evils of physical slavery; we fight against the evils of educational slavery. In...

Windsor on Monday joined the growing number of municipalities which have voted to end the decades-old practice of adding fluoride to the water supply in the fight against tooth decay. “A lot has changed in the last 60 years … fluoride is not the be-all and end-all to prevent tooth decay,” said Mayor Eddie Francis, who voted with the majority.… “I want to be shown that when we ingest this, we are safe,” said Kimberley DeYong of Fluoride Free Windsor. She and others said not a single study among those cited by fluoridation proponents looked specifically at the industry-sourced chemical...

First, on a personal note: Thank you, thank you and thank you, Mary Elizabeth Williams! What a glorious service you’ve done the pro-life cause. I know, that’s not what you intended. But that’s precisely what you’ve accomplished. Did I say thank you? In her jaw-dropping article, “So what if abortion ends life?” Williams – a mainstream, though uncharacteristically honest pro-abort scribe for Salon.com – has inexplicably broken from the Orwellian left’s ministerial script. In so doing, she’s severally undermined the very cause for which she would gladly “sacrifice” (dismember alive that is) her very own daughter. A daughter, mind you,...

Last week America’s abortion giant Planned Parenthood announced that it will be moving away from the slogan “choice” as a way to describe killing a child in the womb. Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards told a press briefing that abortion is “complicated” and that the “pro-choice” label was unacceptably limiting.That’s the spin. Here’s the truth: The term has become a political loser.Today more Americans know the science of the developing child and the reality of what abortion does to her and to her mother, and increasingly they refuse to cloak themselves in the propaganda that the abortion industry pushes. Thanks...

The way to end abortion is to show women that abortion strips them of freedom. Abortion does not preserve choice; abortion pollutes choice. Not All Free Choices Are Beneficial Killing in the name of freedom does not preserve one’s own freedom. Women nearly always have the freedom to kill; they do not always have the right to kill. Pro-choice activists tell women that in order to preserve their freedom, they must defend their right to kill their children. But the question is not whether an act is committed freely, but whether it is an objectively good act. If you...

OptimismRevolution   h/t Vince

I know it sounds outrageous, but the arguments my liberal readers make for abortion have convinced me that they are trying to legalize rape. Aside from the obvious fact that rape is a moral issue (and one can’t legislate morality), pro-abortion reasoning provides 10 additional reasons for making rape legal. I have enumerated all of them below. I have even taken the time to expand on some of the more disturbing arguments: 1. It is uncertain where consent ends and force begins. Because that is largely a religious question that cannot be determined by science, it has no place in...

NARAL Pro-Choice America PAC Proudly Endorses Elizabeth Warren for U.S. SenateThursday, 11 October 2012 10:39 Pro-choice group will activate its 21,049 member activists in key race Washington, D.C.--(ENEWSPF)--October 11, 2012. Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, announced yesterday that her organization’s political action committee endorsed pro-choice candidate, Elizabeth Warren to represent the Bay State in the U.S. Senate. **SNIP** NARAL Pro-Choice America PAC has given the maximum contribution of $10,000 to Warren’s campaign. The organization will activate its 21,049 members in Massachusetts and encourage them to support Warren’s election efforts.

In a recent article in the Detroit Free Press, an education policy organization called Education Trust-Midwest expressed concern that taxpayers were supporting too many “failing [charter] school operators.” A focus on school quality for all schools is certainly needed, but Ed Trust’s analysis of charter public schools is short-sighted, unhelpful and risks creating negative unintended consequences. The Free Press reported that Ed Trust created a “cut score” for charter school quality based on the state’s “Top-to-Bottom School Ranking.” If a charter school performed better than 33 percent of the schools in the state, it passed; if it fell below this...

To begin with, we can all agree that the days of the conservative Blue Dog Democrats forcing their party to compromise with Republicans is over. Other than a handful still in office, soon you will only find a reference to the term "Blue Dog" in the footnotes of history history classes. If you are wondering what happened to the God fearing conservative blue dogs, just take a look at the DNC Platform. Even the mere mention of God was left out of the language until the negative publicity got so bad they had to force it back in against...

A pair of videos out of the DNC are letting the Democrats indict themselves with their own foolish utterances. First, from Reason, comes this look at the “pro-choice” party is actually committed to allowing people to make their own choices: And second is the video from Peter Schiff, who has some surprising success (or not so surprising if you regularly read the new additions here at LotM) in getting attendees to agree that there should be a ban on profits. See video(s) at link...

Suppose you went to eat at a strange restaurant and, upon asking the waitress what was good on the menu, she told you that she didn’t know because she never ate there. When you ask why, she explains that the food and atmosphere are much better at her favorite place, and even though the food costs more, it’s worth it. You would naturally attribute a great deal of credibility to this waitress because she was honest enough to point you away from the place where she has a personal stake in its success. In other words, you would trust her...

The recording of the 911 call from an apparently badly botched abortion last week at an abortion clinic is Dayton has been made public and the details are shocking for a woman who was victimized. A woman was rushed to the hospital in Dayton, Ohio following a botched late-term abortion that took place at the Women’s Med Center abortion clinic in Dayton. Martin Haskell, who is credit with making the partial-birth abortion procedure a household name, runs the abortion facility that injured the woman. According to local pro-life advocate who filmed emergency medical personnel rushing to the scene, paramedics loaded...

<p>BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - The Louisiana Supreme Court has refused to stop the launch of Gov. Bobby Jindal's statewide voucher program, which began this month.</p> <p>The high court denied an injunction request by teacher unions and school boards to stall the voucher program as they challenge whether it is constitutional. A hearing in the court case is set for October.</p>

Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made a compelling case for school choice Tuesday at The Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice dinner honoring Milton Friedman’s 100th birthday. Friedman, who died in 2006, was universally known as one of the most influential economists of the 20th century. His free-market philosophy had a strong influence on the policies of world leaders like President Ronald Reagan and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and helped convince leaders of many developing nations to reform their economic strategies. Less known is the fact that Friedman was the father of the American school choice movement, advocating...

Mitt Romney showed guts today when he spoke to the NAACP and, as Roger Simon noted at Politico, neither groveled nor pandered to a hostile African-American audience. He may show even more nerve soon naming his running mate well in advance of the Republican National Convention. That’s the way Reuters is interpreting a comment made yesterday at an appearance in Colorado when the GOP candidate was asked whether he would name the person who will fill out his ticket before such announcements are normally made. Rather than shoot down the suggestion or not answer, Romney simply said he hadn’t decided....

Democrats were riding high in the polls in 2006 and 2008, and one of their big issues was health care. Then, after passing the president's health care law, the politics shifted, and the issue helped sweep the GOP to victory in the 2010 midterm elections. A few months later, Republicans had a 14-point advantage in terms of voter trust on the health care issue. Then, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan introduced his health care plan, and the lead disappeared. Neither party has an advantage on the issue now. President Obama's plan is unpopular, and most want to see it repealed. Ryan's...

There are good people trying to make a difference in every organization, despite the fact that the odds are stacked against them. Simply put, public schools cannot properly educate your kids in today's America because our entire educational system went terribly off track decades ago, and the current political and educational environment is impossibly resistant to change. Consider the following:

Fiscal conservative up-front... rock-n-roll in the back! Mullet Mania is taking the country by storm: Proven record of conviction A Democrat who serves his country* Won't take lavish vacations on the taxpayer's dime Willing to do whatever it takes to steal the nomination Political prisoner... fashion icon From The Big House... to the White House! * in the can Keith Judd 2012 !!!  [YouTube] ______________________________Video/more at Reaganite Republican